The Supreme Court recently issued a pair of unanimous decisions clarifying how arbitration clauses impact litigation. One decision restricts a court’s discretion to dismiss—rather than stay—litigation after ordering the...more
On June 27, 2023, the Supreme Court in Mallory v. Norfolk Southern Railway Co., 600 U.S. ___ (2023) substantially broadened (at least temporarily) the bases for general personal jurisdiction over out-of-state corporations in...more
On January 23, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court dismissed In re Grand Jury, which had asked it to expand the scope of attorney-client privilege protection for dual-purpose communications, i.e., communications (particularly those...more
The U.S. Supreme Court in Home Depot U. S. A., Inc. v. Jackson, No. 17-1471, 2019 WL 2257158 (U.S. May 28, 2019) held that a third-party defendant first named in a counterclaim cannot remove cases under either the general...more
5/29/2019
/ CAFA ,
Class Action ,
Co-Defendants ,
Counterclaims ,
Federal Rules of Civil Procedure ,
General Removal Provisions ,
Home Depot USA Inc v Jackson ,
Jurisdiction ,
Remand ,
Removal ,
SCOTUS ,
Third-Party
On April 24, 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court held that ambiguous arbitration provisions cannot be used to compel class arbitration. Lamps Plus v. Varela, No. 17-988, 2019 WL 1780275 (April 24, 2019). This 5-4 decision expands on...more
4/25/2019
/ Ambiguous ,
Appeals ,
Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Class Arbitration ,
Consent ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Federal v State Law Application ,
Jurisdiction ,
Lamps Plus Inc v Varela ,
Motion to Compel ,
Preemption ,
Reversal ,
SCOTUS
The U.S. Supreme Court in China Agritech v. Resh, 2018 WL 2767565 (June 11, 2018) ruled that the American-Pipe doctrine—under which filing a class action tolls the statute of limitations for later-filed individual claims—does...more
In Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. v. Sup. Ct. of Calif., 2017 WL 2621322 (2017), the U.S. Supreme Court continued its push against forum shopping by holding that California state courts do not have specific personal jurisdiction...more
In Microsoft Corp. v. Baker, 2017 WL 2507341, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously held that federal circuit courts lack jurisdiction over appeals from class-certification denials (or any other interlocutory decision) taken...more
The U.S. Supreme Court in Henson v. Santander Consumer USA, Inc., 2017 WL 2507342, ruled that purchasing and then collecting a defaulted debt does not, standing alone, make an entity a “debt collector” as defined by the Fair...more
The U.S. Supreme Court in BNSF Railway Co. v. Tyrrell, 2017 WL 2322834 (2017) made it harder for plaintiffs to sue in states where their alleged injury did not occur by reversing the Montana Supreme Court’s attempt to assert...more
The U.S. Supreme Court in Midland Funding, LLC, v. Johnson, 581 U.S. ___, 2017 WL 2039159 (2017) ruled that filing a bankruptcy proof of claim on time-barred debt does not violate the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act...more
The U.S. Supreme Court in Universal Health Services v. U.S. ex rel. Escobar, 2016 WL 3317565 (June 16, 2016) unanimously endorsed the so-called “implied certification” theory of False Claims Act liability, under which a...more
In Spokeo v. Robins, the U.S. Supreme Court (6-2) reversed the Ninth Circuit’s holding that an alleged violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act was sufficient by itself to create a case or controversy required for a...more
The Ninth Circuit has answered questions left open by the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Campbell-Ewald v. Gomez decision by finding a putative class action was not moot even where the defendant deposited the offered funds into...more
The U.S. Supreme Court largely avoided important class-certification issues and resolved Tyson Foods, Inc. v. Bouaphakeo on narrow grounds. 2016 WL 1092414 (Mar. 22, 2016). The Court affirmed a classwide jury verdict for...more
3/24/2016
/ Admissible Evidence ,
Class Action ,
Class Certification ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Doffing ,
Donning ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
SCOTUS ,
Statistical Sampling ,
Tyson Foods v Bouaphakeo ,
Unpaid Overtime ,
Wage and Hour